Weekend Wrap-Up

I hope everyone enjoyed the long three day weekend of matches thanks to the SCAC finishing up earlier today. My wife and I traveled down to Southwestern to watch their matches and to celebrate our anniversary. (Yes, my wife is very understanding but also loves her Pirates volleyball.) I will avoid all the boring Southwestern information until the bottom of this post. You’re welcome.

Let’s start with the ASC as they had matches during the week and then concluded this weekend with the first half of their crossover. All of the conference matches during the week were sweeps so no surprises there. I was a little interested in the UMHB/McMurry match but the Cru made short work of it. It has to be a little nerve wracking to be a UT Tyler fan as they really do have a nice team but getting swept by TLU (more on them later) earlier in the season and then losing to Belhaven has to be frustrated. I can only imagine their thoughts as Howard Payne went up two sets to one on Saturday. Tyler got it figured out and won so no harm done but nice effort by the HPU Yellow Jackets. UTD somehow dropped a set against Sul Ross only to scream back and win the last two 25-9 and 25-7. Sul Ross would later lose a 5-setter to Belhaven to remain win-less in conference play but some good signs there. Speaking of Belhaven, they also had a nice 5-set win over McMurry, which might have been the biggest surprise in the conference this week. Let’s see what I’m I missing? I know there was something else I wanted to mention. Oh, yeah! UTD (#16) and UMHB also squared off this weekend and as anyone that has followed my West Region Rankings knows, I have UMHB ranked but not the Comets. So, I wasn’t too surprised with the results but even I didn’t see the ease that the Cru would sweep UTD. Side note, not sure the last time I saw a volleyball box score with only 7 players listed as UMHB had for this match. It should be pointed out that what UTD is doing this season is really quite impressive as they lost a ton of talent to senior graduation and then had two devastating injuries to two top players before the season.

Off to the NW Conference where they continued their conference play. Even though I have Linfield and Pacific listed in my Watch List, I’m not sold on them as they really didn’t play a tough out-of-conference schedule. This weekend one team struggled while the other hung on…barely. Linfield lost at home to Pacific Lutheran in one of their few chances to impress the West RAC and then compounded the problem by dropping a 4-setter to George Fox at home. Pacific fared better avoiding an upset bid by Lewis & Clark before beating a decent Puget Sound team in 4-sets. Pacific continues to lead the conference. Pacific Lutheran took care of business this weekend with their victory over Linfield and then a sweep of Lewis & Clark as they stayed in a second place tied with Whitworth. Whitworth was the preseason favorite but failed to impress in SoCal and then dropped their opening conference match to Pacific Lutheran, but they had an easy week of it in conference going undefeated.

To the SCAC whose week started with Centenary taking on DI Grambling State only to fall in 5-sets. The big match of the week was the Trinity/Southwestern showdown and it was my great pleasure to be able to watch this one in person. In the end I was NOT happy with the result (Trinity victory in 4-sets) but I came away impressed by both teams (more on this later). Colorado College took care of business in the other half of conference play and that included a sweep of Austin College. There really were no upsets although TLU came close pushing Southwestern to 5-sets after being up 2 sets to 1. TLU also owns a sweep of UTT and I can see why as they are just annoying. (I mean that in a good way.) Without a doubt, TLU has the most energetic group of ladies I’ve seen on the volleyball court and a coach that leads them through different routines (for lack of a better word). This probably doesn’t sit well with opposing teams but I say whatever works! In the SU match, it was all about energy, really excellent passing and defense and OH Makenzie Griffin. TLU is going to be a tough team to play and while they probably can’t do enough this season to make the tournament if I was an opposing coach I wouldn’t be happy to see them still on my schedule.

The SCIAC just has a lot of good teams that are all close in talent. They are, of course, lead by Claremont Mudd-Scripps that will probably sweep through league play but the rest of the conference is a good group. Whoa! – mental note…change that last sentence before publishing. The week started off with an upset as Pomona-Pitzer took down Cal Lutheran (their fifth straight loss) on the road and the first time they have beaten the Regals since 2009. The week also ended with an upset as Chapman took down #7 CMS at home in 5-sets winning the last one 25-23! I was quite pleased to be able to watch this one on somewhat reliable hotel Wi-Fi. Chapman is your only undefeated SCIAC team left in conference. In between the upsets CMS had an easy time of it against La Verne winning in three sets 25-16, 25-12 and 25-12 and seeing CMS hit .368 for the match. La Verne is another team I wasn’t sure about starting the year but they’ve made a name for themselves on the back of four 5-set victories this season. In another match of note, Cal Lutheran was able to break their losing streak with a sweep over Occidental and then a surprising road win against Whittier in 5-sets. Whittier was the surprise team of the SCIAC to start the season and this is a bit of a road bump. It appears the SCIAC is going to continue to beat themselves up during conference play and since only 4 teams make the conference tournament, at least one good team will be left out.

So, lots of interesting results to feed into my million dollar ranking machine tomorrow. Check back then to see the changes and the only thing I know right now is that there will be changes!

*Boring Southwestern Write-Up *

OK, you’ve been warned! Kudos to the amazing Pirate student section that came out in force for the Trinity match only to leave disappointed. They were led by the swim team who came out in full uniform! By full uniform, I do mean Speedos and not much else. (Maybe a sock or two but I wasn’t looking.) There were some mentions on Twitter that I was in the group of swimmers (sans socks) but I really don’t want to comment on that at this time. On to the match and Trinity was really good in their service receive and defense. My main concern last year with Trinity was their service return but they were locked on for this match. I thought their libero and right side were the difference in this one. In truth, I thought the Pirates operated out-of-system for a large chunk of the match and despite that had chances in set one and two. It really came down to large runs that Trinity was able to get in all four sets. Set one they were down 10-11 before they ran off 5 points. Set two saw SU blow 5 set points by giving up 7 straight points. Despite winning set 3 there was still a 5 point run there and set 4 had a 6 point run. I may have my Pirate blinders on but a fix here or there (or slightly better passing) and this match is different. But, full credit to Trinity as who’s to say they didn’t have another gear left in them. Trinity and Southwestern will play Colorado College next week so we’ll have our initial ordering at the top in the SCAC.